Top story on CNN.com today: George Bush was way more sensible than Rick Perry

posted at 9:27 pm on August 17, 2011 by Allahpundit

It’s not the top story as I write this, but here’s the screencap from earlier this afternoon:

That link went to this piece by Texas liberal James “Bush’s Brain” Moore, who’s suddenly the hottest ticket in cable news for his willingness to tell panicky leftists that Perry will succeed in bringing about the wingnut apocalypse that Bush only dared dream of. Why is utterly predictable hackery running in a slot that’s normally reserved for hard news? You already know why.

When Bush came to Austin, he held private meetings with each of the 181 state senators and representatives from both parties. He asked them what their legislative agenda included, shared what was on his radar and discussed how they might work together. An astonishing notion, cooperation, but in politics common sense often passes for genius.

Perry, though, was having none of that stinking compromise and kumbaya business. A coalition of hard-right conservatives had taken control of the Legislature, and they weren’t interested in a governor who cut deals. But they didn’t have to push Perry to the right-hand edge of their flat earth; he bravely led them…

Bush might have contemplated reductions in health care for budget cuts and forced up your property taxes with a legislative shell game, but he would have at least felt bad about it. Perry would tell you either not to get sick or make enough money to buy your own damned health care and shut up and pay your property taxes because we need you to underwrite all the tax breaks we give corporations coming to Texas because they are going to make campaign donations.

Perry thinks of W as a country club Republican, a politician too willing to work out deals. Bush doesn’t think of Perry much at all. The people who want Jesus as a screensaver on every computer in public schools, call women who have had abortions “baby killers,” think that being a homosexual is a “lifestyle choice,” and are convinced that humans once saddled up and rode west on dinosaurs; these people all made Bush uncomfortable. But Perry loves them. He shares many of their beliefs. They helped elect him governor.

Thus does the new Hitler become the reluctant Hitler in hindsight. Elsewhere in the piece we discover (a) Bush dressed like less of a poseur than Perry and (b) both men were cheerleaders in college, which should be disqualifying because, and I quote, “No one has yet adequately explained how America can elect cheerleaders to the position of national quarterback.” Top story today. CNN.com.

Ed says this guy wins the super-hack award for most predictable Bush/Perry narrative, but I don’t want to cheat Moore. Can they share the honor? After all, they’re both contributors to CNN, which seems to be trying to out-MSNBC MSNBC in its embrace of the “if you thought Dubya was a scary Texan, just wait” storyline. Speaking of which, via News Busters, here’s Chris Matthews innocently wondering if Rick Perry would have opposed … school desegregation. Only 14 more months!

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Can’t think of anything but how foolish these media-ferrets have become. Yeah, Perry wanted school segregation, meaning between those who wanted their kids forced into a school not of their choice vs. those who wanted to choose which school their kids went to. By trying for the latter, no question he’s Bull Connor, with a water hose.

yeah, I caught a wee-bit of hardball while on the treadmill this afternoon. Dude, Mathews and Joan Walsh and some dude from Univ of Notre Dame were off the chain over Perry. Bull Connor? CM doubled down on it today–race card, conservatives are down on blacks, all of it. It was over the top.

Watching that Howard Fineman clip makes me chuckle at the “Eisenhower Institute Fellow” woman the other night from New Hampshire who about knocked Fineman over with her “Yes! Yes, Perry can beat Obama in New Hampshire! People are mad!”

Moved to Texas in the early 90′s after living in California and DC, so I’ve lived with first Bush and then Perry as governors. Man it’s been horrible, bought a big house, at the cost of less than 2 bedrooms in Palo Alto, that has done nothing but go up in value, built a career that has grown only slightly better than the Texas economy, sent my kids to public schools where in early grade school they had gun safety classes and learned about Travis and Sam Houston and eventually were admitted, with many classmates, to universities that are only in the top 20 in the country, had a heart operation locally at a hospital ranked only in the top 10 in the country for such procedures,

damn, it’s a wonder I’ve survived in this hell hole – I mean it must be since we’ve had such idiots for governors – right?

For those of you hoodwinked by the narrative that Perry and Dubya are enemies, read this article.

Perry, who was considering a presidential run, said he took that opportunity to ask Bush about his thoughts on whether the governor should get in the race. According to Perry, Bush replied, “‘you’ll do what’s right.’ He said ‘you don’t want to wake up when you’re 70 and go, ‘I wish I’d have tried that. I wish I had done that.’

When Bush came to Austin, he held private meetings with each of the 181 state senators and representatives from both parties. He asked them what their legislative agenda included, shared what was on his radar and discussed how they might work together. An astonishing notion, cooperation, but in politics common sense often passes for genius. Perry, though, was having none of that stinking compromise and kumbaya business.

This is amusing. It was Bush’s willingness to compromise (i.e. spend) that got us into trouble in the first place. He didn’t veto a single bill until his second term in office. The last thing we need now is a “go along to get along” Republican.

After the bs with ABC nothing shocks me. This is going to be a war and the only difference this time is how many people are retarded enough to want Obama to keep the keys?? I have actually had several liberals at other places agree that Obama sucks but…….

For those of you hoodwinked by the narrative that Perry and Dubya are enemies, read this article.

Perry, who was considering a presidential run, said he took that opportunity to ask Bush about his thoughts on whether the governor should get in the race. According to Perry, Bush replied, “‘you’ll do what’s right.’ He said ‘you don’t want to wake up when you’re 70 and go, ‘I wish I’d have tried that. I wish I had done that.’

carbon_footprint on August 17, 2011 at 9:51 PM

I’ve had similar professional conversations with people I disliked.

Of course – he’s going to talk to Bush before declaring – it’s the nice thing to do. No sense in offending a guy who has allies that can make your life hell.

And of course – Bush responded quite nicely also. “you’ll do the right thing” – is not exactly a “Yee-Ha do it bud I’m behind you!”.

Don’t read too much into that convo.

Feel free to read EVERYTHING into Tokyo Rove’s condemnation of Perry – and the condemnation of Perry from Bush’s former Deputy Press Secretary.

Push back. Push back. Push back. By not doing so, Dubya lost the media war. Push back and phuck their ‘civility’. Feel free to laugh hard whenever someone talks about how sophisticated the Europeans are. Your beloved British aren’t the people you thought they were in WW2. Let’s face it, neither are you. Time to move on.

Well stated, fellow Texan, but remember this: As much as I might give credit to the Governors and Legislators and Courts of our state, it is the people that make them do what’s right. Same for that other country, the USA, which we are currently a part of. And, that’s the only salvation, the people. What makes Texas great is the same thing that once made the USA great, the power being with the people first, the government but their servant, their slave, and not the other way around.

You’ve got two views of America’s future – one is Conservative – and a return to the founding principles. The other view is LIberal – which wants to supplant all founding principles with those of socialism.

If the Socialists lose in 2012 … they aren’t likely to sit by and just watch us disassemble the New Deal.

Which is why we need to elect a REAL Conservative who will have guts to disassemble the nanny state AND take a hard line with libbies.

TXUS – I agree, we have a good system that counts for a lot in Texas; I especially credit no income tax and limits on the legislature meeting; but if Bush and Perry were the idiots the media tries to portray, we would have still been in serious trouble over the past couple decades.

Carbon-footprint – I hear you; I thought my mention of gun safety classes in public elementary schools would scare most of them off. (I didn’t even get around to mentioning how the millions of local prejudiced hicks elected a lesbian as mayor.)

(I didn’t even get around to mentioning how the millions of local prejudiced hicks elected a lesbian as mayor.)

Over50 on August 17, 2011 at 10:12 PM

It was actually all the liberals/minorites that voted for Mayor Porker. The city of houston, except for a few pockets, is blue, like so many big cities. It starts getting red as you get away from the center.

Macho Texas is still seeking psychological counseling trying to reconcile the fact that its two most popular governors in the modern era were cheerleaders. Bush first learned to hold the bullhorn to his mouth at Andover, and Perry, who prefers the term “yell leader,” rallied the cadets at Texas A&M.

I didn’t read past that, because the stupid became too painful to endure. Especially in Perry’s case, where the all-male and mostly military yell leaders are elected by the student body and get a lot more votes than the student council offices.

Perry fans might as well lose this attitude that no one is supposed to compare Perry to Bush. I suppose if some other liberal comes out of Chicago to run for POTUS someday, you won’t compare them to Obama at all.

Perry fans might as well lose this attitude that no one is supposed to compare Perry to Bush. I suppose if some other liberal comes out of Chicago to run for POTUS someday, you won’t compare them to Obama at all.

Moesart on August 17, 2011 at 10:42 PM

That isn’t the point. The point is that liberals always find a strange new respect for republicans no longer in office and claim that those republicans were moderates/pragmatists willing to compromise. This after years of calling the former office-holder republicans hitler and worse. We all predicted they would start doing this w/ Bush and it did not take long.

They did it with Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, they even did it with Gingrich for a little while.

So now they are willing to claim that W. Bush was a good guy, a moderate, reasonable and willing to compromise, after 8 years of telling us he was stupid, evil, racist, sexist, and fascist.

If Perry were to win teh general election, they will hate him for 4 or 8 years and then they will find a strange new respect for him when they need to vilify a new republican. it’s as predictable as the sun rising.

Advice to the Clown News Network… When attempting a hit-piece, try to sound less shrill and hysterical. Even if you had a fact in there somewhere, who would take it seriously when you’ve got conservatives mounted up on dinosaurs?